Peter Putnam, 78; Scholar Wrote of His Blindness

By ERIC PACE

Published: September 28, 1998

Peter Brock Putnam, a blind historian who spoke in public and wrote about blindness and was active in nonprofit organizations, died on Wednesday at his home in Princeton, N.J. He was 78.

He had suffered from lymphoma for three years, said his son Brock.

Peter Brock Putnam had his sight when he was born, in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. He went on to graduate from Hill School in Pottstown, Pa., and entered Princeton University. When he was a 20-year-old Princeton undergraduate, he was blinded when he shot himself in the head with a .22-caliber rifle while trying to commit suicide during ''a state of depression,'' his son Brock said.

Later, Peter Brock Putnam recalled that after the shooting, ''in a 10-day sleep I cannot remember, I had a miraculous awakening to life and a sense of my own selfhood previously lacking. Near death and totally blind, I was more alive than I ever had been.''

He received a bachelor's degree in 1942 and a doctorate in Russian history in 1950, both from Princeton, and was a lecturer there, mostly in European history, from 1950 to 1955.

His books included two highly praised autobiographical works, ''Keep Your Head Up, Mr. Putnam!'' (1952) and ''Cast off the Darkness'' (1957). He also wrote ''Love in the Lead: The Miracle of the Seeing Eye Dog'' (1979, University Press of America), and edited ''Seven Britons in Imperial Russia, 1698-1812'' (1952), an anthology.

Among the posts he held in the nonprofit world over the years were president of the board of trustees of Recording for the Blind and vice president of the Unitarian Universalist Association. He recently received a lifetime-achievement award from the Seeing Eye in Morristown, N.J., the organization that trains guide dogs and their masters.

Besides his son Brock of Litchfield, Conn., he is survived by his wife, the former Durinda Dobbins, whom he married in 1944; another son, John Gerry Putnam of Manhattan and Boston; a daughter, Barbara Putnam, also of Litchfield; two grandchildren, and a sister, Theodora Downing of Annapolis, Md.